The city of East Grand Forks and a downtown building owner discussed a $510,000 economic development loan Friday, but it was unclear if an agreement had been reached.
At around 6 p.m. Friday, City Administrator David Murphy said mediation was "ongoing." He declined to comment when asked if the parties reached an agreement.
Jon Brakke, attorney for Boardwalk , said earlier this week he would have no comment at the end of Friday's meeting. He said a settlement was unlikely to be signed by the end of the day's negotiations even if the mediation was successful.
Read more about Boardwalk Enterprises here.
"At most, at the conclusion of a successful mediation, you have an agreement in principle," Brakke said.
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City Council members Clarence Vetter, Chad Grassel and Mark Olstad were to participate in the discussions, Murphy previously said. Karen Klein, a retired U.S. magistrate judge, was scheduled to mediate the dispute Friday.
The mediation comes after several meetings, including two closed-door sessions in 2014, that were convened in an effort to resolve the dispute over the 17-year-old loan used to help build the Boardwalk building. City officials said in an April 2014 meeting the debt was unpaid, prompting uproar from the community.
Dan and Scott Stauss, Mayor Lynn Stauss' brother and son, respectively, own interests in Boardwalk Enterprises, according to court records. The mayor has said repeatedly he was not involved with the business and was unaware of the loan.
Boardwalk Enterprises has argued the city is responsible for roughly $742,000 in construction and other costs it agreed to under the original agreement. Boardwalk offered to settle the issue at "zero dollars," according to August 2014 meeting minutes, but City Council members were cool to that proposal.
The City Council voted last year to renew the Boardwalk Bar and Grill's liquor license on the condition that the loan be resolved within a year, but that vote is now the subject of a case in front of the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Attorneys for the restaurant have argued the city cannot hold it responsible for the debt of a separate entity, while city attorneys have said the bar and Boardwalk Enterprises share similar ownership.
The Minnesota Court of Appeals took that case under consideration at the conclusion of oral arguments in early February. It's unclear how Friday's mediation will affect that case.
